Aleph and BPI back Ekinops' acquisition of OneAccess

Aleph and BPI will both hold a minority stake in Ekinops, and will become the most significant investors in the listed group.

The GPs' investment will come as the second tranche of a capital increase organised by the business, for a total of €35m. Ekinops will first complete a €12m tranche, which will later be completed by a second of €24m provided by BPI and Aleph. This second tranche remains subject to the completion of Ekinops' first capital increase.

The overall capital increase is aimed to support the acquisition of OneAccess, a designer of integrated routing services. OneAcess has been backed by a number of VCs over recent years, including Idinvest Partners, CM-CIC Capital Privé, Tempocap, Innovacom and Innovation Capital, according to unquote" data.

The group, including OneAccess and Ekinops, will wield an estimated €76m in revenues (OneAccess currently generates around €58m) and employ 400 people, 50 of whom come from Ekinops.

Previous funding
In 2003, a syndicate of investors led by Ventech provided a €6m first round of financing to support the development of Lannion-based Ekinops. Auriga Partners and Siparex Ventures followed the lead investor, with each institution committing €2m.

In 2006, London-based ETV Capital backed the startup with a further €1m round. According to unquote” data, around 70% of the company was held by institutional investors at that stage.

In 2007, Odyssée Venture led a new round alongside Auriga, Ventech, Siparex, Equitis, SGAM AI and OTC Asset Management. The financial sponsors kept a majority stake in the business.

In June 2010, Amundi Private Equity Funds, Auriga Partners, Siparex, OTC and Ventech provided a further €6m of expansion funding. Finally, in April 2013, Auriga provided a €6.74m round.

Company
Established in 2003, Ekinops designs and manufactures optical transport systems. It offers a range of transponders, optical filters, amplifiers, protection units, ethernet routers and wireless products. Based in Lannion, France, the company generated €18m in revenues in 2016 and employs around 50 people.

People
Aleph Capital Partners – Hugues Lepic (CEO).
BPI France – Maïlys Ferrère (director for large venture).
Ekinops – Didier Brédy (CEO).

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